Tim Donaghy critiques the officiating in the NBA finals

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by Jurassic Referee

As I've said numerous times before, imo the NBA micro-manages their officals as to how the league wants their games called. And if the officials are getting good grades from the league in a game while following the league's direction, you can't blame the officials for supposedly crappy officiating in the same game. The guys are just providing what their bosses want. And they really don't have a choice. Their jobs depend on their evaluations.

I completely agree, but that is the case at most pro leagues. The NBA is no different; it is just harder IMO to be an NBA (basketball) official because we have so many more decisions to make. A baseball umpire in many cases is not ruling on anything during a play. And everyone gets upset over things that happen in basketball games they do not get upset over in things like an NFL game. But all those leagues have standards that those officials must adhere to. I belong to an association that has three current NFL officials and they talk a lot about what they are expected to do as well. But an NFL official might only have 160 to 200 plays total to rule on. A basketball official does that in a quarter. And even in Tim's critique were a lot of plays that other sports might not even have to be evaluated on.

Peace